NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Seattle-based Spiral Genetics has shifted the focus of its business from building solutions based on existing open source software for genomic data analysis, to developing a suite of products based on a proprietary method of detecting large structural changes in the genome.

Increasing investments from venture capital firms in commercial bioinformatics indicates that the perceived value of the market is rising and suggests a level of optimism about the revenue potential of a segment of the life sciences space that historically hasn't been seen as par

Bioinformatics software startup Spiral Genetics has raised $3 million in series A financing and signed a partnership with genome interpretation firm Omicia in a bid to reach customers in the clinical genomics analysis market.

Increasing activity from sequencing vendors and other new players, as well as a flurry of activity around clinical data analysis software and the commercialization of a number of open source tools were the key trends in the bioinformatics community in 2012.